Deciding to make the reboot of Doctor Who in Wales 20 years ago must have felt as risky as tackling the Daleks without a sonic screwdriver, but a detailed study of the impact of the sci-fi television classic on the Welsh economy says the move has paid off gloriously.
According to the report, the regeneration of the BBC blockbuster series has contributed at least £134.6m in GVA (gross value added) to the Welsh economy, created hundreds of jobs and acted as a catalyst for a dramatic growth in Wales’s creative sector.
Russell T Davies, who was the showrunner for the first four revived series and has returned for three specials this autumn to celebrate the Doctor’s 60th anniversary, plus a new series that will air next year, expressed delight at its impact on Wales.
“When people say, ‘Oh, a drama cost £2m’, what that means is £2m goes into Cardiff, £2m to the drivers and the office staff and the hospitality, the hotels, pubs, bars, supermarkets,” said Davies, who was born in south Wales. “It’s £2m ploughed into Cardiff. Work creates work.”
The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, said: “It’s been really satisfying to see the success of Doctor Who since being produced in Wales and the strong association the iconic programme has with our nation.
“The Doctor’s return has been a key driver in building the reputation of the Welsh screen industry. Here’s to many incarnations to come.”
In the early 2000s, BBC productions in Wales were mostly broadcast to audiences in Wales – a mix of Welsh-language content such as the soap Pobol Y Cwm, and some English-language hits including the drama Belonging, which was broadcast on BBC One Wales.
The original Doctor Who series ran from 1963 to 1989 before being mothballed. The report acknowledges that basing the series in Cardiff for its revival at the turn of the century felt like a risk.
But the show, originally starring Christopher Eccleston as the Time Lord and first broadcast in 2005, was an immediate success. Further series were commissioned and the BBC launched the spin-offs Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures.
As well as finding creative people ready to work on the series, the show used settings in and around Cardiff, from the beaches of South Glamorgan to the capital’s castle and museums, prompting a spike in Doctor Who tourism.
The report, by economists within the BBC public policy team using research from the consortium Media Cymru and Cardiff University’s centre for the creative economy, looks at the impact of the show between 2004 and 2021. It estimates that each of the 13 revamped series generated the equivalent of 50 FTE (full-time equivalent) jobs per series in Wales, and 95 within the UK overall. These jobs are in addition to posts for people who directly work on the show.
It describes Doctor Who’s return as a “pivotal moment”, a catalyst for the growth of the Welsh creative industries over the past 15 to 20 years, claiming it paved the way for big BBC-commissioned shows including Merlin, Atlantis and Sherlock. This year, six new dramas have come out of Wales including Steeltown Murders, the story of the serial killer Joseph Kappen, and the thriller Wolf, both of which have won plaudits.
The report also says the arrival of the Tardis in Cardiff underpinned the BBC’s decision to build Roath Lock Studios – the first purpose-built drama studio in Wales – and to transfer the long-running hospital drama series Casualty from Bristol.
Gerwyn Evans, the deputy director of Creative Wales, said: “I think we are probably fair in saying that outside London, Wales is a key location for high-end drama in the UK. I think you can track that back to Doctor Who and Casualty coming here.”
